Merkel calls for making 2020s "decade of sustainability"

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday called for greater efforts to achieve the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and make the 2020s a "decade of sustainability."

Merkel made the appeal at an online conference of the German Council for Sustainable Development. "What we have been doing so far is simply not enough," she said, reported Xinhua.

According to Merkel, there were still significant gaps in the implementation of the 2030 Sustainability Agenda, formulated by the UN in 2015. Seven of the 17 goals were even moving in the wrong direction, she noted.

Germany's new climate law, according to which the country seeks to achieve CO2 neutrality by 2045, should be seen as a kind of "intergenerational contract," Merkel said. "We are living worldwide at the expense of younger and future generations."

Looking ahead to the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, Merkel stressed that short-term crisis management was not enough. Economic and social recovery from the crisis should lead to a "real transformation" in terms of sustainable development, she said.